So you are involved with Peel.
Originally Posted by
Peter McGurk
Liverpool had always been a dynamic commercial city. It had always moved on with the times. It was never scared of money or making a profit. It had never, ever been frightened of change.
And?
It’s quite laughable to conceive of an 18th century ‘Waterways’ lamenting the loss of the Pool in which the Old Dock was built or then condemning the infilling of the Old Dock for the Custom House or, the building of Liverpool One and the Hilton on the exact same spot.
Who is doing that? No one here is.
And the Albert Dock was not demolished, the Tobacco Warehouses are still there. Yes, mistakes have been made but the WHS has done a job. As I said, we’ve kept the best of what we had and leveled the rest.
Only at the 11th hour was the Albert Dock saved and the 1700s Brindley warehouses were demolished, for progress of course - a car park. All of the warehouses were demolished along with the district of Nova Scotia.
And it is right to argue for a balance between commercial dynamism and heritage but only where either have value.
In your eyes that is monetary value. Peel fail to see the value of the site. They are attempting to make Liverpool Docks like an inland waterway full of mill town canals boats. Historic ships cannot berth in city centre docks because they have been filled in to canal boat depths. A disgrace.
It is those people that cannot make a judgment on that value - those who say ‘keep all, at all costs’ - who would continue to hold us back. And this is where UNESCO goes too far. Way too far.
You mean hold back Peel from creaming it in. I have no problems with Peel making money, but not at our expense. They must make it at our gain. UNESCO doesn't go far enough. The approval of filling in Wellington Dock was appalling.
Peel know the rules and the framework they have to work inside. Peel then chose to throw the rule book away and blamed EH and UNESCO when they present 2nd rate tat which respects no one. Then Peel attempt to get the city on their side as they need things to move on to create jobs. Peel not have the intelligence to realize that if they could combine the heritage and new developments they would gain a lot. However at is not their style is it? A cowboy workman always stays a cowboy because his mind is conditioned to short cuts and the fast buck. Many are left with his poor workmanship in the long term. In the long run he always loses to the respectable professionals. Peel have the cowboy attitude. But many are fools and suck the Peel propaganda in - like many took on the cowboy tradesman because he promised a lot.
You say you look forward to a Venice or Amsterdam of the North. Given the constraints you put on yourself this is quite, quite impossible.
There are NO constraints whatsoever. There are water spaces and they can be left as they are and built around using the known rule book - how simple is that? But no you and your outfit want to create lucrative land by stealth - Peel are primarily a land company. Peel will build sweet nothing. They will have a master plan and sell off the construction plots to others. but land values rise like a kite and Peel take massive windfalls.
Their naivety is there to see. How can you have two large projects like Wirral and Liverpool Waters and not have one of them on Merseyrail? That proves they are not in it for the long term. Peel will leave behind tat and walk away with windfalls leaving the city to pick up the pieces. An all too common occurrence.
You show pictures of cute little canals which are totally out of scale to what we have in Liverpool.
You have been told that they are pictures displaying what can be done with redundant industrial water spaces. No one has said copy it type for type. On the Continent they value their water spaces and are excavating them after many were filled in. There is a page on that in the link in my sig. Liverpool can do what they are doing and create a waterscaped city very easily.
We have some very, very large open docks. They are not and never will be an ‘Old’ Amsterdam - unless you start filling in docks. Or unless you mean New Amsterdam, the old docklands, which are incredibly dull and lifeless. Not the Liverpool I know.
Any close intertwining parts of the docks were filled in, like the Queens and Kings branches to put an ugly arena structure on and chara-banc park. Similar with Central Docks.
If you were looking for a model to work with, I would offer you Sydney CBD. There’s hardly a stick standing there older than 1920 (QVB, parts of the Intercontinental, the Rocks). Nevertheless, it has kept much and moved on much.
Melbourne have done half decent job, but could have a lot better. But they kept the water. So bit by bit the world's largest and most impressive interconnected dock system is demolished without many actually noticing - all in the name of progress the developer sharks will have us believe. The whole waterways and waterscape can be a water based city, like Amsterdam and Venice are with an obvious different complexion.
It would do us good - "Liverpool accepts de-listing to welcome progress."
The above says it all. Two decades ago Liverpool had the reputation of a slum. Then UNESCO came and made large parts of the city centre and old docks world heritage sites. Then the rest of the UK looked at Liverpool in different eyes. And you want to destroy that to build tat and make quick bucks?
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World Heritage Status tells the world we are different and have something unique worth preserving. We have to keep the likes of you and the developer sharks from destroying that. If they want to join in and be a part of it they are more than welcome, but they have to follow the rules, not throw them away when it suits them and then throw their toys out of the cot when people point and tell them where they never kept to the rules.
The city has to be stronger and prevent these people getting their destructive way. We have a lot to preserve.
What has been filled-in in the South Docks:
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